Strawberry Ice
by TigerlilyandHummingbird
Summary: When Ichigo and Ryou are kidnapped, the Mew Mews find out they are against their strongest enemy yet. With a little help from previous enemies, can they save the world this time or this it? Chap 4 up
1. Chapter 1

Strawberry Ice Ok, we know we usually write digimon fanfics, but we decided to try a Tokyo Mew Mew one. Please review if you'd like us to continue. 

**Disclaimer: **Congratulations to Mia Ikumi for creating a great anime, curse you for not putting Ichigo and Ryou together.

Sunday, 12th March 7a.m.

Ryou stared at the Mew Mews for as long as could behind the counter, well as long as he could before one of them noticed him and warned the others to get back to work before he yelled at them. He couldn't believe it. Mint was sitting drinking tea instead of getting the café ready (as per usual), but unlike usual, Ichigo hadn't yelled at her for being a slacker…not even when Mint had told her she was ungraceful and ungrateful (as per usual). What was wrong with her? She had been quiet ever since she'd come with the other mew mews at 5, not saying anything – not even to complain about the early time which he had made them come in to tidy up the café, or about her date with Aoyama. Ryou wasn't the only staring, everyone in the café had stopped what they doing- causing Lettuce to smash yet another plate.

"Ichigo? Are you okay?" Pudding run over to Ichigo and gave her a hug. Ichigo gave a start, and after a couple of seconds returned Pudding's hug.

"I'm okay, Pudding. Sorry, Mint. I wasn't listening, please could you repeat what you were saying?" Something was definitely not right with Ichigo.

Sunday, 12th March 6p.m

"What's the matter with you?" Ryou asked Ichigo for about the 5th time in the past 10 minutes. Ichigo sighed and gave the same response.

"Nothing, Shirogane! I'm fine." Ryou rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Ichigo had been like this all day. No matter who asked her, or how ever many times, she always gave the same answer. The only time she had acted anything like her usual self was serving the customers. Then she had been her usual switched on (well, as switched on as Ichigo can be), calm, nice self. Otherwise she had been like a zombie.

Ichigo had finally finished doing her share of the cleaning (which was most of it, since she was the only one that could really be bothered to do a good job), and walked into the changing room to change back into her normal outfit. Ryou smirked as an idea came into his head and got off the table he had been sitting on.

Sunday, 12th March 6.05p.m

Ichigo walked to the door of the café not paying attention to where she was walking. Which explained why she walked into Ryou.

"Shirogane! Why were you standing there?" Ichigo said crossly as she picked herself up from the floor. Ryou hid his smirk behind his hand. Finally! The old Ichigo was coming back.

"Hey! You walked into me! Anyway, you're not leaving until you tell me what's wrong." Ichigo stared at Ryou as if he'd grown a second head.

"You actually care?" Ryou just managed to keep himself from wincing. Was he really that mean to Ichigo? Well, at least she seemed to be returning to normal.

"Of course I do, Ichigo! I know it doesn't seem like it, but… I think you're a really good friend, and you're upset, and, and you're not leaving until you tell me what's the matter!" It took several minutes for Ryou say some of his feelings for Ichigo. He didn't like letting his emotions out, it showed people weaknesses he had.

While he had been speaking, Ichigo's face had softened from angry to curious and then to an expression of sad happiness. Ryou wasn't sure what he was expecting to happen next, but it wasn't what happened. Ichigo gave a short, high-pitched scream and threw herself into his arms. Ryou's eyes widened, and by instinct rather than anything else he put his arms around her to prevent them from both falling over. As he got over what had happened in the past minutes, Ryou felt something wet on his shoulder. He looked down and saw tears running down Ichigo's face onto his shoulder. He smiled and lifted the girl up and carried her to the nearest table. There, Ryou sat down and arranged Ichigo on his lap and began to rock and comfort her as he could remember his mother did when he was upset.

"Ichigo?" He asked after 5 minutes. Ichigo looked up at him with a tear-stained face. "What's the matter? "

Ichigo laid her head against his now soaked shoulder and sniffed.

"Aoyama told me I had to quit my job at Tokyo Mew Mew, and stop being Mew Strawberry, or he'd…he'd…" At this point Ichigo buried her head into Ryou's shoulder once more and began to cry heartily again.

Ryou's forehead creased as half as his mind puzzled over what Ryou would do if Ichigo didn't quit, and the half flipped over what Ichigo had just said. Why the hell had Aoyama even thought about telling Ichigo to quit? Being a mew mew was her destiny! However, Ryou kept this hidden as he stroked Ichigo's hair and comforted her again, waiting for another lull in Ichigo's crying storm.

Sunday, 12th March 6.08p.m

The rest of the Mew Mews were walking down the avenue from the café when they heard Ichigo scream. After a quick glance at each other, they raced back down towards the café. As they reached the front door, Zakuro stopped suddenly and veered off towards the side of the café.

"What's she doing?" Pudding whispered.

"She probably heard something. Come on." Mint whispered back over her shoulder as she ran after Zakuro. When Mint, Pudding and Lettuce found Zakuro, she was peering through a window with Keiichiro. Lettuce scowled for a moment when she saw how close Keiichiro and Zakuro were, but then her curiosity of what they were looking at took over and she took the place on the other side of Keiichiro and looked into the café. What she saw took her breath away. Ichigo was snuggled up to Ryou, and they were talking. Or rather, Ichigo was talking and Ryou was listening. Every few minutes Ichigo would bury her head in Ryou's shoulder and he would comfort her until she began to talk again.

"What do you think they are talking about?" Lettuce said quietly. Zakuro shrugged in response.

"I can't hear through the glass, but I have a feeling it's about why Ichigo was so out of it today. She didn't argue once!"

A squeak from Mint made them all turn around, including Keiichiro.

"What is it Mint?" asked Pudding. Mint was staring at her watch.

"It's 6.30! I promised I would be home before 6.15 today! I have to go, see you guys tomorrow, say goodbye Ichigo for me!" She ran off, followed by the other mews that had made similar promises to their families, leaving Keiichiro at the window watching Ryou and Keiichiro. He smiled and said to himself.

"I'd better make some extra food for dinner, we seem to have a guest."

Monday, 13th March 3.p.m 

"Afternoon, Akasaka!" Pudding said happily as she skipped into the café kitchen (We don't think Pudding would enter the café any other way). She looked around for a few minutes and then asked,

"Where are Ichigo and Shirogane?"

"I don't know, Pudding." Keiichiro replied. "I haven't seen either of them since Ryou walked Ichigo back last night after dinner. I was hoping one of you might have seen them."

Zakuro came into the kitchen with a pile of dirty plates in her hands.

"Have we got Ichigo's home phone number?" she asked, having heard the conversation with her super hearing.

Keiichiro nodded. "Just in case there's an accident at the café and your parents need to be contacted."

Mint had caught one to Zakuro's plan. "Then it's simple! We call Ichigo's house and ask if she's ill and if we can speak to her. We then ask her if she's seen Ryou!" While Mint had been speaking, Keiichiro had grabbed the phone and dialled Ichigo's number. The mews fell silent as he began talking.

"Hello Mrs. Momomiya, this is Akasaka Keiichiro, please may I speak to Ichigo? … She's not home? Well, please could you tell me where she is? … You haven't seen her since yesterday morning? … No, I'm sorry none of us have seen her since yesterday evening when a friend of hers walked her home… She didn't arrive home… Don't worry, Mrs. Momomiya, we will look for them, then alert the police. Don't worry. Goodbye." Keiichiro looked up into the anxious faces of the mews.

"She isn't there, is she?" Lettuce asked worriedly.

Keiichiro shook his head and clenched his fists. However he looked up at the Mew Mews with a smile on his face and with a light tone in his voice.

"Don't worry, get back to work. They'll turn up." The Mew Mews nodded and headed back out to the café. The moment they had left the kitchen, Keiichiro dropped the façade he had been putting up and hit the wall hard.

"Damn you, Ryou! Where are you? And is Ichigo with you?"

We hope you enjoyed this chapter; if you'd like us to continue please review. And please check our friend's fics, willpower1318.


	2. Chapter 2

Strawberry Ice 

Sorry we have updated in ages and have left you guys on a cliffhanger. We had to go on a caravanning holiday where there was no computer, let alone Internet. Anyway, thanks to everyone for reviewing, we hope you like this chapter!

**Declaimer:** If we owned Tokyo Mew Mew, would be writing fanfic? No, we would be designing episodes.

Unknown, Unknown

Ichigo woke up with a huge pounding in her head and absolutely no idea where she was. After staring into the dark that surrounded her for a few minutes and using her wildcat genes, she managed to make out that she was in a room of some sort. She leaned back and sighed, as she did so, she realised she was leaning against someone, not a wall as she first thought. She turned round, only to find that they were chained back to back against each other. _Okay, _she thought, _At least I'm not alone in here. All I have to do is find out who this other person is, and maybe they know where we are, and who chained us together._

Ichigo cleared her throat and called out. "Hello?" There was no response. Immediately Ichigo began to panic. What if they had tied her to a dead person? She hated dead people, they gave her the creeps. Ichigo took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. She flexed her fingers and found out that her hands were tied to the other person's. They were soft and warm, so they can't have been dead. She smiled and began to move her hands over the other pair, hoping that her actions would inspire a result from the other person.

"Hey, no offence, whoever you are, but why are you rubbing my hands?"

Ichigo's face lit up at the sound of the person's voice. Surprisingly, she found out she had hoping it had been him in the first place.

"Ryou!"

"So…we were walking along that my street, talking, and that's the last thing either us can remember, right?"

" Right. That must have been when we were knocked out and taken here. " There was a pause before Ryou spoke again. " Hey, Ichigo, do you know where we are by any chance?"

Ichigo shook her head and then realised Ryou couldn't see her.

"No, I was hoping you did." They sat in silence for a couple more minutes, until once more Ryou broke the silence.

"Ichigo, can you help me get my mobile out of my back pocket? I can't reach on my own." _So that's what he's been trying to do! _Thought Ichigo. She had felt him pulling their hands around just now.

"Sure. Where is it?"

They had just managed to get the phone into Ryou's hands when the door of the room they were opened. They both looked up to see the person who had opened it. Ichigo began to scream, but Ryou could only stare.

Wednesday, 15th March 6p.m

Kish looked down on the bodies he, Pie and Tart had just found.

"Do you think they're dead?" he asked, turning round to his friends. Pai shook his head in response.

"But they're obviously badly injured." Tart piped up. "They need an…" He crossed his legs, floating while he searched for the name of the word he was looking for. "That's it!" He jumped up.

"We need an ambulance! They take really injured people to hospital!" He stood there, hovering a few inches above the ground looking incredibly smug. Kish narrowed his eyes and decided to spoil his little brother's (A/N: does anyone whether they're related to each other or not? In this fanfic they're all brothers, Pie being the eldest, Kish next and finally Tart.) happiness.

"Well where are we supposed to get on, Smart Aleck?" At Kish's words Tart's own eyes narrowed at his older brother.

Before Tart could retaliate, causing a fight between Kish and him, Pie interrupted.

"Look, the Mews are over there, why not just ask them?" Kish and Tart looked over in the direction Pie was pointing, and saw everyone who worked at Café Mew Mew (except Ichigo and Ryou) watching Pudding show off her new tricks to a crowd of people. Kish immediately floated over to them and tapped Mint on the shoulder.

"Mint, How do you get hold of an ambulance?"

"Telephone 999 from a telephone and ask for ambulance." (A/N: We're English so we're using the emergency number you use in England. Does anyone know the Japanese one?) Mint replied without looking over her shoulder or thinking.

15 minutes after Kish had thanked her and gone to go and tell his brothers what to do, Mint suddenly realised what she'd been asked. She spun round, spotted the aliens and ran towards them.

"What **pant **do you **pant **want an ambulance **pant **for?" she panted when she reached them. Pie pointed at the ground below to answer her question. Mint felt herself retch as she looked at the bodies. Below her lay Ichigo and Ryou. Ryou had an arm across Ichigo's body as if he was trying to protect her from something. They were both covered in scratches and bruises, but what really made Mint want to hurl was the looks on their faces and a large cut running down Ryou's arm. It was green, looked infected and blood was coming from it like there was no tomorrow. Mint hated blood, the sight of it made her faint. The last thing she heard before she blacked out was the siren of an ambulance.

Thursday, 16th March 10a.m

Lettuce sighed, lowered her eyes briefly before snapping her head back up to look at Ichigo's and Ryou's seemingly lifeless bodies. It was hard to believe that one of her best friends and her boss, who had both seemed fine 5 days ago, were now in the Critical Care Unit of the local hospital fighting for their lives. _What happened? _ She thought. _What happened to them to hurt them so bad, and more to the point scare them so much? _ Lettuce sighed once more and was about to get up to go to the toilet when suddenly Ichigo began talking and thrashing around violently. Like everyone else, Lettuce immediately looked at her, but she wasn't awake, it looked like she was having a fit, or sleep talking in a really bad dream.

"No…No…Go away! Get away! Ryou!" Ichigo let out a scream, and stopped talking, but continued to thrash. Keiichiro looked urgently at Lettuce.

"Lettuce, get some nurses quick, before she hurts herself!" Lettuce nodded and ran out of the room, happy to be able to help Ichigo, but also happy because Keiichiro had trusted her to go for help.

What happened to Ichigo and Ryou when the door opened? What caused them to be in such a mess? Does Lettuce have feelings for Keiichiro? Will we stop asking annoying questions? Probably not. Read and Review to found out what happens next. Baibai!


	3. Chapter 3

Strawberry Ice

Sorry again for the long wait. This time we blame our teachers setting unreasonable amounts of homework (there should be a limit to how much they can set…) and DOE (Duke Of Edinburgh). Note: If you live in GB, and are thinking of taking DOE, do not, unless of course you like walking about 21km, getting blisters, sore backs and sunburn. Thanks for the reviews; we hope you enjoy this rather late chapter.

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Thursday, 16th March, 10.06am

Keiichiro looked down worriedly at Ichigo. The nurses Lettuce had found were holding Ichigo, but she was still thrashing, or trying to just as violently as before. Watching the expressions on her face, Keiichiro could tell she was having a very bad nightmare. After another 5 minutes, Ichigo finally stopped thrashing. Keiichiro sighed and sat down again. It looked like they were in for another long wait.

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Unknown, Unknown 

"Will it work master?"

"Why wouldn't it, Nickson?"

The young man twirled the small pink and blue cube in his hands. "It doesn't look very much, sir. I excepted it to be much bigger, to match the things it can apparently do." The hooded figure laughed.

"Trust me, great things come in small packages." He stopped laughing. "Anyway, you are clear with what you have to do?"

Nickson nodded.

"Then go. And give it back to me." Noting the sharp tone in his master's voice, Nickson quickly handed back the cube he had been holding and left.

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Monday, 20th March, 2p.m.

Zakuro leant back onto the Café Mew Mew counter to catch her breath and think. Ryou and Ichigo had woken up Friday morning, within 10 minutes of each other. However, they'd both ended with not the slightest idea of what had happened to them. Except, Ryou could just remember being scared about something. Which, Zakuro mused, was unusual. Ryou rarely got scared, worried, yes but never scared, unless it was them, then there was no limit to how much he would worry. Zakuro heard a bunch of plates crash as they hit the floor and wondered who had dropped them. After Ichigo and Ryou had woken up, the aliens told the Mew Mews their real reason for finding them. They had decided to come back and live on earth after being re-born (A/N: After the fight with Deep Blue, they were re-born back on their home planet). However, they needed a job so they could pay the bills and Café Mew Mew was the only place they thought would hire aliens from another planet. After a lot of persuasion and promises that they wouldn't destroy the café and that this wasn't a trick, Ryou had finally hired them. Pai was a decent worker, a bit like Zakuro, cold and harsh to customers, but didn't drop stuff, or least hadn't yet, meanwhile Kish didn't stop flirting with every single female customer he served and over half the time ended up being pulled away from the table by someone. And Tart had joined the 'Lets-try-and-entertain-people-and-earn-some-extra-money-at-the-same- time club which Pudding was a very active member of.

"Who was it?" Zakuro asked as Pai came over.

"Pudding and Tart. They were trying-" 

"-A new trick" she finished his sentence with a smile.

Pai nodded. Zakuro turned to go.

"Better get back to work before Ichigo or Ryou notices." Pai allowed a smile to curve his lips upwards. Half the time he wasn't sure if Ryou and Ichigo had an agreement that said that he would give her extra cake if she made sure everyone was working. The other half, they were arguing, so he knew they couldn't. Pai watched Zakuro start to walk from table to table, collecting orders. She has a nice body, and she's clever too, and beautiful… He mentally kicked himself. A year ago she was our enemy! Though we might be working with them now, you should not be having those thoughts!

"Thinking about a certain Pomegranate?" Pai jumped. He hadn't noticed Kish creep up behind.

"Just as sure as I am that you're thinking about a certain mint?" Pai didn't have to look round to know that Kish's face would be on fire.

"'Lil bro?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's make a deal. You don't mention who I like, and I return the favour."

"Gotcha. Deal signed."

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Monday 12th March, 3.30pm

Keiichiro stared at the computer screen, rubbed his eyes and stared at it again. He had taken a break from cooking to come done to the basement and check the computer screen, more from habit than expecting to find anything; and yet the screen was flashing showing that part of Tokyo was under attack. Stranger still was the fact that Masha hadn't said anything, and since he only reacted when aliens were attacked Tokyo; this had to be an attack from some one else other than the aliens. Keiichiro took one last glance at the computer screen then ran up the stairs three at a time to alert the mew mews.

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Sorry this chapter is a bit short, but we needed an in between bit to introduce the couples and the bad guys. Please R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

Strawberry Ice 

Boy do we feel crap! It's been about 4 months since we last updated…WE ARE SOOOOOOO SORRY! There's no real excuse…apart from the fact we've just been too lazy too! So please forgive us and R&R!

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Monday, 16th March 4pm

"I can't see anything." Mew Strawberry said as she walked beck to where the other Mew Mews, the Aliens, Ryou and Keiichiro were standing. After Keiichiro had told them about the things he had detected on the computer, they had quickly closed the café and way their way to the place where the computer said there had been some trouble. To find nothing. This had then caused to decide to spilt up and look for trouble. Mew Strawberry guessed by look on their faces that they had had as much luck as she.

"This is weird." Keiichiro said. He was looking at his laptop. "The computer still insists that there is something here!"

"I've got an idea!" exclaimed Mew Pudding. "I'll go ask that little girl over there if anything bad has happened here recently." Before anyone could say or do anything, Mew Pudding was off, Tart not far behind her. Mew Mint looked across at Ryou. He was looking at the little girl Mew Pudding and Tart were talking to as if something was very wrong with her. She then moved her eyes across to Mew Strawberry, who was doing exactly the same thing. Mew Mint turned to focus on the little girl, and gasped. The little girl had blonde hair tied up in two bunches and red eyes. She was wearing a pink hoodie and pair of jeans, but the scary thing was, she had an uncanny resemblance to both Ichigo and Ryou.

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Unknown. Unknown 

"You lost it Nickson?" The hooded figure actually rose from his seat, something that almost never happened before. Nickson gulped. He was for it.

"I'm very, very sorry master, one minute it was there, the next it was gone…" Nickson rambled; trying hard to postpone the punishment that he knew was inevitable.

"Nickson, you have one chance to get back Strawberry Ice! Do you realise that without it everything we have been planning for will be worthless? And if it falls into enemy hands, they could use it against us!"

Nickson grabbed the only lifeline his master was offering to him with both hands. "Trust me, master," he said, trying (and failing) to keep a tremor out of his voice. "Strawberry Ice will back before you know it."

The master sat back in his chair. "It'd better be," he hissed, "Or Nickson, you life will not be worth living." Nickson gulped once more and crawled back out of the room, being careful not to show his back to the master.

The minute he was outside, he stood up and pushed a button on his earpiece and began to talk into rapidly.

"We have a problem. The master did not take the news well, and we need to find Strawberry Ice." As the person on the other end of the earpiece spoke, Nickson scowled.

"I don't care what you are doing now, whether it is creating a cure for cancer or painting the lab, Strawberry Ice needs to be found- now!"

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Tuesday, 17th March 8.30am

Ryou woke to someone tugging on his duvet. He opened his eyes and looked blearily at the small girl sitting on his bed.

"Good Morning!" she smiled.

Ryou gave an unintelligible reply and fell back on his pillow. Why the hell was there a girl on his bed?

"Oh yeah," he muttered as the events of yesterday came back to him. After talking to the little girl, Pudding (she had transformed back) and Tart had brought over to meet ever one else. They had found out that her name was Kitty and she was six years old and had no idea what her surname was, she had never been told, and no she didn't know who her parents were, she had run away from the people who had looked after her because they had treated her horribly.

By this time, all the Mew Mews had fallen for her and had begged Ryou and Keiichiro to look after while they found out where she came from. Their argument had been it would be horrible for her in a Home, a combination of cute looks and the fact that they would work over-time for free for the next two weeks. Ryou sighed. Why had he agreed to look after a six-year-old? He forced himself to get up and smile back at Kitty. _Well, _he thought to himself, _look on the bright side, looking after a six-year-old can't be that hard can it? _

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Tuesday, 17th March 10.30 am

Ryou leaned against one of the Café's tables and tried to catch his breath back. He remembered the thoughts he had had that morning when he woke up. Famous Last Words.

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Tuesday, 17th March 3pm

"Remind me. Why did we agree to look after Kitty?" Ryou asked Ichigo and Lettuce as they walked in the Café's front door.

"Why?" was Ichigo's answer, "Has she been a problem?" She looked over to Kitty, who was sitting angelically in the corner of the café drinking a glass of chocolate milk.

"No, she's been an angel." Ryou said sarcastically. "She's been driving Keiichiro and I up the wall. It took us forever to get her to eat some breakfast and even longer to convince her to get dressed back into her normal clothes from the t-shirt we lent her last night." Lettuce and Ichigo looked over at Kitty who had now finished her milk and was now looking round the café. She smiled when her eyes rested on Lettuce and Ichigo. Kitty got down from the chair and walked over to where the three had been talking. When she reached them, she out her arms out and said to Ichigo,

"Cuddle, please." In complete and utter shock, Ryou watched Ichigo's face soften and bend down to pick her up.

Lettuce turned to Ryou, "Are you sure she was a pest Shirogane? She's acting like a little angel, aren't you Kitty?" she turned back around and said the last part to the child in Ichigo's arms.

Ryou stood there, speechless for once in his life, as the child which he had to chase all over the café at least 10 times and then force-feed breakfast snuggled into Ichigo's shoulder. And what was even worse was as Ichigo walked over to the changing rooms, still holding Kitty, Kitty looking over at Ryou, grinned and gave a little wave.

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Once again we're soooooooooooooooooooo sorry about not updating sooner, we hope you enjoyed this chapter, Please R&R!


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